Los Alamos National Laboratory

 Scientists have uncovered key attributes of so-called “brown carbon” from wildfires, airborne atmospheric particles that may have influenced current climate models that failed to take the material’s warming effects into account. The work was described by a collaborative team of researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Montana in the journal Nature Geosciences this week.
“Biomass burning and wildfires emit fine particulates that are toxic to humans and can warm or cool climate. While their toxicity is certain, their specific climatic effects remain unclear and are a hot research topic,” said Manvendra Dubey, a senior Los Alamos climate scientist. “Smoke from wildfires accounts for one-third of the Earth’s ‘black’ carbon — the familiar charred particles that are associated with fires with large flames. While black carbon is relatively simple — solely consisting of carbon — brown carbon contains a complex soup of organic material, making it difficult to identify, characterize and model.”

A former member of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s non-proliferation team says he was fired after writing an article for a nonprofit website in support of abolishing nuclear weapons.
James Doyle, who lives in Santa Fe, said he believes he was let go after 17 years because lab officials feared the article, which espoused his personal views, could be interpreted as a voice from the laboratory and could present problems in seeking funding for Los Alamos’s nuclear bomb building mission.
A Los Alamos spokesman said the lab doesn’t discuss personnel matters.
Doyle said he was fired July 8, several months after lab officials claimed his article raised classification concerns. He says the article had been cleared for publication by the proper officials before it was published.
Doyle’s attorney Mark Zaid said he believes there was clear retaliation, and he is pursuing administrative remedies for his client.
The Center for Public Integrity initially broke the story.
In its story, a number of former advisers were quoted.
“It sure looks like he’s being fired for supporting the president’s policy,” said Jon Wolfsthal, a special adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden.

Don’t worry, that beer can you’re holding is not going to spontaneously burst into flames, but under the right circumstances aluminum does catch fire, and the exact mechanism that governs how, has long been a mystery.
Now, new research by Los Alamos National Laboratory explosives scientist Bryce Tappan, published as the cover story in the prestigious German journal of chemistry Angewandte Chemie, for the first time confirms that chemical kinetics — the speed of a chemical reaction — is a primary function in determining nanoaluminum combustion burn rates.
“It’s been long understood that nanoscale aluminum particles, 110 nanometers and smaller, are highly reactive. Aluminum particles at this scale have been used in novel explosives, propellants, and pyrotechnic formulations,” said Tappan. “The understanding of the combustion mechanism impacts how we look at the design of ever smaller aluminum particles like molecular aluminum clusters as well as possible nanoaluminum applications like hydrogen fuel storage devices — and this might be a little ‘out there’ — but also energetic formulations that could use extraterrestrial water as the oxidizer in rocket fuel.”

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Environmental Programs will close the east side of the parking lot at the “Y” at the interchange of N.M. 4 and N.M. 502 from Monday to Aug. 4.
The closure is part of resumption of work necessary for crews to safely close three formerly used monitoring wells, part of a multi-year program to properly plug and abandon characterization boreholes and wells.
Plugging and abandoning boreholes and wells that are no longer needed keeps the remaining holes from turning into pathways to groundwater.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this important work,” said Corrective Actions Program Director Dave McInroy.
“It is as important to close wells safely as it is to construct them in a way that is protective of the environment.”